Rav Hamnuna רב המנונא
the prayer-master of Babylonia: his words are in the machzor
Rav Hamnuna was a Babylonian Amora of Rav's school. Yoma cites his confession: "My Master, before I was formed I was worth nothing, and now that I am formed—as if not formed; dust am I in life, the more so in death" (Yoma 87b)—words that entered the Yom Kippur liturgy and sound in every congregation to this day.
A caveat is needed here. The Talmud knows several sages of this name, and the confession at Yoma 87b is assigned by the reference works sometimes to him, Rav's student, and sometimes to Rav Hamnuna Zuta—the Younger, who lived a century later. We give both readings and do not decide for the sources.
About his order of the day the Talmud argues with him in his own words: he prolonged prayer, saying—there is a time of eternal life and a time of the hour's life, and each has its hour (Shabbat 10a). The rulings of his school are scattered through the Talmud marked "Rav Hamnuna taught".
The sources give no years of life; the window of activity is set by generation, following Aharon Hyman's Toldot Tannaim ve-Amoraim.
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Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Yoma 87b — the confession «You know the secrets of the world»
- Shabbat 10a — the time of learning and the time of prayer
Basis: Talmud and midrash.